Flame of Fury

by Sharon Green

  The three had grown up together almost like brothers and sister, but Rianne had been a sister like few others. Cam smiled as he watched her move to a stone bench and sit with all the grace of a great lady, remembering when she hadn't been graceful at all. She'd been resisting her lessons in ladylike comportment with all of her usual stubbornness, but Angus knew that her gawkiness upset her deeply. So he'd casually mentioned the new gardener who had once been a fencing instructor. The man was down on his luck and had taken the job as gardener to keep his family fed, and could certainly be trusted to keep silent if Rianne paid him to teach her to fence.

  Angus had wanted Rianne to learn a womanly grace the easy way, and so she had. What he hadn't counted on was her paying for lessons for himself and Cam as well, lessons the brothers would have done anything for. All three of them learned to use a sword, and after the instructor left to open a school again they also practiced together. But only with wooden swords. Angus and Rianne were both too good, and it took awhile before Cam began to catch up.

  "He's talking again about cutting my allowance," Rianne said suddenly, drawing Cam's attention back. "He claims that having too much money to spend ruins a young girl, so he's threatening to cut the allowance down to a mere pittance. If the trustees let him do it - and they just might - I won't be able to keep adding to our fund."

  "Why would he do that?" Cam demanded with a frown. "And how can he do it? Isn't the money yours from your father's estate?"

  "With Mother dead it is mine, but as my stepfather his word carries a lot of weight with the trustees of the estate," Rianne explained. "They don't know him the way I do, and they also don't know that he's trying to force me into marrying. Not that they would think that was all so terrible. They'd do same thing themselves to see their daughters married."

  Cam watched her make a face at the idea, just the way she always did. Rianne had grown into the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, with golden red hair and green­-blue eyes that were enough to stop a man's heart, matched to a face and body guaranteed to start it up again. She was breathtaking, maddening - but wanted nothing to do with being married. What she wanted was to be free and on her own, and was even willing to turn her back on all the money and property waiting for her in order to do it.

  "I wouldn't worry too much about his threats," Cam told her, trying to bring her smile back. "Since Angus and I already have what clothes and accessories we'll need, we won't need to spend on that. We also have the passage money, so all that's left is the amount of our stake. If we have to go with a smaller stake, well, we'll still make it."

  "Oh, Cam, I can always count on you to make me feel better," she said with the smile he'd been looking for. "And you're right, of course. If it gets to the point where I can't stand it any longer, we'll simply pick up and go. If our stake is small, it won't matter in the least. We're going to make our fortunes in America, and no one will be able to stop us."

  With the way her beautiful face glowed as she said that, Cam didn't doubt it for a minute. She'd lived with the dream for years, and had made it the dream of Angus and himself as well. All the time she'd taken to teach them to speak the way men of property would, the gold she'd given them to buy the clothes of gentlemen. Rather than face their new lives with hat in hand, they would stand with heads held high and demand a place rather than beg for it. He and Angus would have gone with her even as servants; it had been her choice that they pose as her brothers instead.

  "And we may have to go sooner than we thought," Cam put in, wondering how she would take the news. "Angus says the victims of those three desperate highwaymen who have been robbing coaches in this area are wild over having lost their gold. They're screaming to the authorities that something be done to the miscreants and everyone is starting to run in all directions. As soon as they start setting traps, the game is over."

  "I'm surprised they haven't yet noticed that only certain people are being stopped and robbed," Rianne said with such a devilish grin that Cam blinked. "All of them being cronies of my stepfather. Did I mention that some of them demanded he reimburse them? They claim they wouldn't have been robbed if they hadn't accepted his invitation to visit, and they have no idea how right they are."

  "Ree, I was trying to tell you that we can't keep pushing this," Cam said, attempting to put the sound of authority in his voice. "We've only been at it for a short while, and already everyone is shouting for our blood. No matter how much you're enjoying yourself, you have to remember that hanged people don't do well with starting new lives."

  "Then we'll have to be sure we stay unhanged," she answered with a laugh, the glow in her eyes teasing him for his caution. "Although If I had to choose between hanging and going back to the attentions of those … gentlemen, the sight of the rope would begin to be a lot more appealing. But I suppose I do have to go back, at least for a little while. And if we do well enough this afternoon, we may even be able to leave after tomorrow, when all the guests head home."

  The idea excited Rianne so much that she got immediately to her feet, kissed Cam's cheek, then headed back toward the house. She would meet the brothers later in the usual place, and after she changed her clothes they would play highwaymen again. Cam shook his head with a sigh as he watched her go, then took himself off to find Angus. Leaving in a day or two might be the best idea after all, and he wanted to talk to his brother about it. Rianne was enjoying herself too much with the very dangerous game they were playing, and if they didn't get her away soon they might find that time had run out faster than they were expecting…

  Rianne headed back toward the house, but rather than go all the way around the yards she took a narrow side path through the hedge. She felt wonderfully better after talking to Cam, and didn't care to spoil the mood by returning to the vicinity of her suitors. There wasn't one among them who would have understood what she planned to do and why, let alone join her even half as enthusiastically as Angus and Cam had.

  The side path led to a pretty little bower, a single stone bench surrounded by vines and flowers and, a bit farther back, yew trees. As she sat on the bench she remembered all the marvelous afternoons she'd spent there, reading books and dreaming. The idea of becoming highwaymen had come from one of those books, the notion of running away to the colonies from another. Of course in the books it was men who had done those things, but by including Cam and Angus she was simply stretching the point.

  And it's not as if I'll find the life I want by doing nothing more than sitting here, she thought. All those heroes did go to where the ladies were, but she'd been waiting for what felt like forever and no one even remotely resembling a hero had appeared. Which wasn't surprising, when every suitor coming after her had to be approved of by Robert Harding. He didn't want her to have a hero, just a pawn who would obey him the way Rianne never had.

  Well, traveling to the colonies would change that. Rianne closed her eyes and raised her smiling face to the warmth of the sun, letting herself slide down into her favorite daydream. She would reach the colonies with her adopted brothers, make her mark as an individual in her own right, and then her hero would appear. He would be so impressed with what she'd done that he would fall immediately in love with her, telling her so almost as soon as they met. And she, knowing his love was real, would not be too shy to say the same, and they would be happy for the rest of their days.

  A gentle breeze tickled through Rianne's hair, but she was much too busy enjoying her dream to notice.

  Chapter Two

  Bryan Machlin grimaced inwardly at the coach waiting in his drive, but outwardly he nodded pleasantly to the bearded driver standing with cap in hand who was holding open the door for him. The man was trying very hard not to look impressed, but his efforts fell a good deal short of success. He gaped up at Bryan, plainly shocked at how big the other man was, and Bryan nearly grinned. To him everyone else was small, and he himself the nor­mal one. He passed the driver without speaking and climbed into the coach, then settled back for what would be
a very short trip. He wore a sword in a scabbard attached with lockets as a gentleman was entitled to do, but had left his pistols at home. The sight of them tended to upset people, and that wasn't what he wanted to do during the coming visit.

  But that coach was coming close to upsetting him. A white body trimmed with gold, red wheels, a large and ostentatious coat of arms on the door, red-dyed leather inside covering the seats, matching lap robes neatly folded on the seats in case the summer weather suddenly turned freezing cold - all of it enough to embarrass anyone but a king on parade, which Bryan didn't happen to be. As a matter of fact he didn't even want to be a king, not when the position required even worse ostentations than that. And that coat of arms was all but meaningless, which meant it just had to be Harding's.

  As soon as his case was put aboard the coach they pulled away from his house, heading for the road that would lead to the very next estate. Bryan had intended riding over across the fields on his favorite hunter, but Robert Harding wouldn't hear of it. Bryan was not only his new neighbor but a very special guest, and nothing would do but that he send his best coach.

  "Obviously he's afraid I'll get lost on my own," Bryan muttered softly, but a small, private grin creased his rugged, masculine features. Getting lost was the last thing he intended doing, at least until he had the answers he wanted. Harding had those answers now, but if Bryan's plan worked, in a very little while he would learn all he needed to know.

  Bryan ran a hand through his very dark red hair, then forced himself to relax. The end of the chase was nearly in sight, and another few days would see the quarry bagged. It had been five years since his brother had taken his own life, and after all that time Bryan was finally closing in on the man who was responsible for causing that tragedy. It had cost him a fortune in gold to find out the little he had, but he'd finally discovered that a man named Robert Harding knew all about the way his brother had been trapped and threatened. Bryan had decided that Harding would talk no matter what he had to do to make it happen, but luck had suddenly touched him with a gift.

  Bryan had bought the estate adjacent to Harding's, but hadn't had to force a meeting with the man. He'd been invited to join the private club the area notables attended, and his first night there Harding had come over to him. The man had welcomed his new neighbor in the sort of condescendingly hearty way Bryan detested, and then had offered to have a drink with him. The one drink became four, with Bryan answering a large number of not-very- discreetly put questions, and then Harding had gotten around to the real reason he'd approached Bryan.

  "It's my stepdaughter, you see," Harding had explained, the expression on his face trying to be concerned. "She's an exquisitely beautiful girl, and once she marries she'll also be extremely wealthy. Even she doesn't know just how wealthy, but there's no need at all for her to know. Her husband will have control of her property, of course, him and any friendly advisors he might have. He will also share her social position, something all the gold in the country can't buy. She's directly related to the royal family through her mother, you see, and blood will always tell."

  Bryan had wondered briefly just what it was blood was supposed to tell, but kept the question to himself.

  "And you control the estate now?" he'd asked instead, expecting the answer to be yes. That was usually the way it worked, but Harding had surprised him by shaking his head.

  "No, the estate is overseen by a board of trustees," Harding had told him with something like an unconscious grimace. "Lockwood was a baronet, but his private holdings far exceeded his official ones. It came from another branch of his family, and at his death became subject to administration by a previously selected board. My stepdaughter, being Lockwood's only living child, is his sole heir. Her late mother was provided for with lifelong funds supporting her in proper style, but being a Lockwood only by marriage meant she wasn't able to inherit."

  For the briefest instant Harding's expression had turned furious with apparent frustration, giving Bryan the impression the older man hadn't expected that when he'd married the woman. He must have thought he would have control of all that gold, and then had come the crushing truth. The man really was a fool if he hadn't first gotten the facts straight before plunging into marriage, Bryan had thought.

  And then Harding's expression had changed, telling Bryan that the man was about to make him an offer. Bryan suspected he was going to be extremely interested in that offer, but first there had been more pretending to do.

  "So your exquisitely beautiful stepdaughter isn't yet married," he'd commented, deliberately sounding uninterested. "I'm sure the lack of suitors is only a matter of your being this far from London. Have you considered taking a house there?"

  "God forbid!" Harding had exclaimed, actually looking shocked. "If the flock she has around her now is a lack, in London I'd find myself feeding half the city. No, a lack of suitors isn't the problem. They're at her endlessly and propose on what seems to be a prearranged schedule, but she won't have any of them."

  "Won't have?" Bryan had echoed, brows high over light-gray eyes. "Why haven't you simply picked one and told her to accept?"

  "She … isn't that easily told things," Harding had admitted, now looking embarrassed. "I must say I had no idea she would grow to such willfulness due to what seemed like harmless indulgence on my part, but all of that is water under the bridge. She needs the hand of a stronger man than I, and one who won't be a father to her."

  "So she's a screaming hellion who has you under her thumb," Bryan had said with a grin. He was curious to know just how far he could go with Harding, just how desperate the man really was. "Why are you telling me about it? Women have a habit of behaving themselves around me, so I'm hardly the one to ask advice from."

  "That, sir, is exactly the point," Harding had pounced, not in the least insulted. "A man of your size and determination would soon have the girl put property in her place, and would then be able to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his efforts. I have recently conceived a plan to circumvent her refusal, and I would be delighted to share it with you - as soon as we come to a firm understanding. I couldn't possibly give my daughter's hand to just anyone, you understand."

  Harding had smiled then, and Bryan had understood. He was a very wealthy man with no wife, and Harding was offering him a priceless opportunity. If he married the girl he would not only have her wealth to add to his own, he would find an acceptance in the highest social circles that his children would share. That acceptance would otherwise never be his, but the offer wasn't without strings. Harding had a price, and didn't mind saying so.

  "This firm understanding," Bryan had probed, keeping his eyes on the other man. "Just what would it entail?"

  "You would need to give me a third of your new wife's estates, and control over enough more to make a full half," Harding had answered without hesitation as he leaned forward. "A man of your resources will never miss so piddling an amount, and it will also buy my friendship and support. Do you agree?"

  Bryan had grinned and gotten down to bargaining, and the final agreement came at one quarter of the inheritance given outright, and control over enough more to make a third. Harding had insisted that the agreement be put in writing, and Bryan had insisted that he first get a look at his prospective bride. If she pleased him he would sign the agreement, and then they could get to Harding's new and brilliant plan to get around her refusal…

  "And now things are finally working out," Bryan murmured as he glanced out of the coach window and saw the road ahead. He would take a took at the girl, but it really didn't matter whether or not she was attractive. His plans called for marrying her anyway, and then he would have Harding right in his hand. The man was obviously desperate for money, and his one and only chance at some was to share in his stepdaughter's estate. If he hadn't been desperate he wouldn't have concocted some wild scheme to overcome the girl's refusal, which until then he'd obviously been willing to live with.

  And that desperation was what Bryan was counti
ng on. If he married the girl, Harding would lose his very last chance at a very large sum of money - unless he cooperated with Bryan. If he answered Bryan's questions truthfully and fully, he would get what he needed. If he didn't, his only other option would be to go begging on the streets of London. Just meeting the supercilious and fastidious Harding had told Bryan how impossible that choice would be, which meant he would get his answers.

  And the girl would be no worse for the episode, either. Bryan shifted on the leather seat, knowing that part of it was very important. No matter what she was like, Harding's stepdaughter was still an innocent in the affair that had caused his brother's death. The only honorable course open to him would be to keep her in his house after the wedding, and once he had his answers he would arrange for an immediate annulment. Sufficient gold and an untouched bride would end the marriage quickly, and then they'd be able to get on with their lives.

  As Bryan stared out at the trees lining the road, his thoughts left his bride-to-be and returned to her stepfather. He'd been tempted to take the man and torture the information out of him, but that had to be left as a last-resort effort. Men like Harding either turned out to be stronger than they looked, or they collapsed at once and became useless. No, his plan was what he was counting on, and there was very little chance it wouldn't work.

  Even if that daughter of Harding's tried being difficult. It would hardly interfere with his plans, and after all, how much trouble could a girl be anyway? Bryan chuckled, knowing the answer was nothing he had to be worried about…

  "Luck doesn't seem to be with us this afternoon," Angus commented as Rianne watched the third coach pass their hiding place. "Since we're not going to rob just anyone, we might as well go home."

  "Just one more," Rianne decided in annoyance. Two of the three coaches had held neighbors rather than Robert Harding's guests, and the third had belonged to a man who was forced to do business with her stepfather despite his obvious dislike of Harding. "The next one has to be someone we can stop, and if it isn't then we'll leave."